The Reckless Ruse
by KayTeaR
Summary: Inspired by "The Rigel Black Chronicles" this is a homage to murkybluematter's HP fanfiction series (the first book of which is "The Pureblood Pretence") about Harry/Rigel Potter/Black. Synopsis: In an AU where Hogwarts only accepts purebloods Harriett Potter has to switch places with her cousin to attend school. The only problem? Her cousin is a boy. Alanna the Lioness take on HP.
1. Family

If you haven't read murkybluematter's Rigel Black series this story probably won't make much sense. But then, if you haven't read that series yet, count yourself lucky! You have several days of uninterrupted reading enjoyment before you, until you are stuck waiting for the next update with the rest of us…

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This story will be a kind of anthology where the chapters are unconnected one-shots about Harry/Rigel's life.

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 _Watching his daughter grow up is a father's most wonderful and most terrifying experience._ James POV on a family dinner with the Hursts. Set in the summer of Harry's 14th birthday.

Latest story update at the time this was written: Ambiguous Artifice chapter 9

 **Disclaimer** : I don't own any of the characters or places from Harry Potter, Song of the Lioness or the Rigel Black series.

A/N: Thanks to DistractedDaydreamer for beta reading.

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 **The Reckless Ruse: Family**

James Potter was lazily charming coloured orbs of light to zoom around the playpen for his baby girl to chase. Every time she touched one he made it change colour and those she managed to clap her tiny hands around would burst into a thousand little stars that hung twinkling in the air for a few seconds before winking out one by one. There were only two orbs left when the bell in the floo room chimed, signalling the imminent arrival of their guests. He rose from the couch and walked over to the entrance of the floo room, releasing the wards on the fireplace and calling to his wife, Lily, who was making some last minute preparations in the kitchen. His elder daughter, Harriett, who had been sitting next to him, dividing her attention between reading a book and watching her little sister, hopped up as well. She quickly stowed away her book and put on the shoes she had abandoned earlier when she'd curled up on the couch with her feet tucked under. Then she came up next to him, clasping both hands around his elbow and leaning her head against his arm in a rare gesture of affection. In answer he circled his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, and pressed a swift kiss to the top of her head. Just a moment later she broke away, moving forward to greet her friend Leo as he stepped out of the fireplace. James couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance at the other male for taking his daughter's attention away.

He quickly suppressed the feeling however and conjured a charming smile to his face as he shook first Leo's hand and then those of Mr. and Mrs. Hurst as they came through the fire after their son. Lily strode in, a bright smile lighting her beautiful face as she greeted the Hursts and began ushering them to the living room. James was just about to reset the wards when the flames turned emerald once more. He looked quizzically at Mr. Hurst.

"Are you bringing someone else?"

"No," was the bewildered reply.

He narrowed his eyes at the fireplace, wand at the ready, all his auror senses alert. So concentrated was he on what lay before him, that he didn't notice Harry and Leo also gearing up for a fight. Harry shifted slightly to the side to block the playpen and her baby sister from view while Leo in turn positioned himself in front of Harry.

A head appeared in the fire, cheerfully shouting "Anyone home?" before he had even taken a look around. Recognising his nephew Arcturus Black, James lowered his wand.

"Archie! What are you doing here?"

"That's what I'm here to ask you. Dad says to hurry on over. He's already miffed he had to start cooking without Aunt Lily."

"We're not coming over for dinner tonight," Lily told the head in a slightly apologetic tone. "We have guests. I sent you guys an owl about that this morning."

"You sent an owl? You've known my dad for more than fifteen years and you sent him an owl with time sensitive information? You know he never reads his mail. Why didn't you just tell him when you came to pick up Addy yesterday?"

"Because I didn't know then," his wife explained patiently. "It was sort of short notice."

"Hey Archie, what's the hold up?" Sirius' voice drifted through the flames from the kitchen in Grimmauld Place. Archie's head turned in an instinctive movement to look over his shoulder though of course he'd only be able to see the back wall of the fireplace. He flinched slightly and the reason became apparent a moment later as Sirius' head popped up next to his. Sirius must have squeezed himself into the fireplace beside his son.

"Ugh dad. Get off me! You're heavy."

"Just a moment, son. So James, what's up?"

"You'll have to eat without us tonight I'm afraid. We have guests."

"As you'd know if you bothered to read your mail," added Lily.

"Great!" Sirius grinned. "That means you've already cooked dinner. So pack up the food and your guests and come on over. Your kitchen is way too small for entertaining anyway."

"You may never have seen it Black but we actually have a dining room," Lily snapped, exasperated.

"Oh yeah. Now that you mention it. I think we celebrated my seventeenth birthday in there. Didn't we James?" James smiled at the memory. His wife raised her eyebrow at him.

"Really? Were your parents looking for an excuse to redecorate?"

"Hey Lily, what's that your insinuating?" Sirius protested in mock affront. "Hey, son, where are you going?" Archie's head had vanished from the fire.

"Out from under you," they could hear his muffled answer.

"Well anyway, don't be strangers, hurry on over. I'll leave you to your packing." And with that Sirius' head disappeared as well.

James sent the Hursts a bemused look. They had been watching the exchange with expressions of amused interest.

"Well since we haven't driven you off yet maybe it is time you met the rest of the family."

"Dad!" Harry exclaimed in a tone of mock indignation though James thought she did indeed look mildly panicked. "If you don't like them you could have just said so when we were planning on inviting them. They wouldn't have had to come all the way here."

The game smile the youngest of their guests threw Harry in answer had James itching for his wand. That boy was way too good looking to trust him around his daughter. 'Man' he reminded himself. Lionel Hurst was not a boy. He was of age and, while still young, moved with the self-assurance of an adult. Harry was probably worried that James and Sirius would gang up on him if they went over to Grimmauld Place and now that he'd thought of that James rather liked the idea.

"You don't seem to have a very high opinion of your family," the young man teased his daughter with rankling familiarity.

"Or of us," his mother added, a twinkle in her eye.

James watched his daughter shrug nonchalantly, all signs of agitation smoothed away. She walked over to where Addy had started fussing in her playpen apparently upset with the lack of attention on her, muttering something that sounded like "It's your funeral," before picking up her sister and bouncing her on one hip. He looked back to his guests to receive an encouraging nod from Mr. Hurst.

"We'd love to meet the rest of your family."

"Okay then," Lily smiled at the Hursts, catching his eye and nodding toward the door. "Just give us a moment to pack up the food and we'll be ready to go."

He followed his wife to the kitchen and quickly started piling the pots she handed him into a shopping basket with inbuilt expansion and weight reduction charms. He had just finished stowing the last conainer when he heard Harry call from the living room.

"Dad? The floo in Grimmauld Place is warded, right? So only family can enter? So I guess it'll be easiest if we each bring someone along."

"That's right, dear," James replied, already moving back toward the living room with a feeling of mounting dread. He was sure he knew where this was going and if it did, he might just have to murder that boy. In a last attempt to save his guests from losing their only child he called "Why don't you go ahead with Mrs. Hurst?" He thought he heard Lily snort behind him but didn't stop to impress the seriousness of the situation upon her. There would be time for that later. Right now he had to get to the floo room before –

He burst through the door just in time to see the flames turn an emerald green as his elder daughter gave the floo directions, still holding her sister on her hip. She flashed him a somewhat pitying smirk as James Potter stood frozen, watching his two daughters disappear in the fire in the arms of Lionel Hurst.


	2. Busted

A/N: Wow, five reviews in the first twenty-four hours. I can suddenly understand the impulse that had Violet thank all her reviewers at the beginning of each chapter in The Pureblood Pretence… Thank you guys for giving my story a chance! [I'm also looking for a Beta to give me more detailed criticism. Unfortunately "Rigel Black" is not a category in the Beta filter so I haven't found a Harry Potter Beta who's also read the Rigel Black series yet. If you know someone or are interested yourself, please let me know.] Never mind, I found someone.

This story has gotten a little out of hand. I had a certain finishing point in mind but when I got there, I noticed I had more to say. So I kept writing. But now I can't seem to find a satisfactory conclusion. I finally decided to publish the chapter with the original ending and if I ever figure out what to do with the rest of it, I'll just tack it on at the end…

A/N 2: Ok. Since the second part got nearly as long as the first, I only made some small editions and additions in here and decided to publish the second half in a new chapter.

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So ever since Rigel got her time turner I've been wondering about the possible consequences excessive use of it might have on her disguise… This one-shot is set in late February of Harry's third year at Hogwarts.

Latest story update when this was written: Ambiguous Artifice chapter 9

 **Disclaimer** : I don't own any of characters or places from Harry Potter, Song of the Lioness or the Rigel Black series.

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 **The Reckless Ruse** : **Busted**

Rigel let a rare smile play around her lips as Pansy abandoned her usual pureblood propriety to skip down the marble stairs ahead of them and twirl around the lawn with a tinkling laugh, face lifted to the sun. Having been cooped up inside during the winter month, with more than a foot of snow on the ground, had been hard on all of them but especially on Pansy, who liked to spend so much of her time outside. The snow had finally melted over the course of last week and by now the grounds had dried again and, with the sun out, there was even a hint of warmth in the air.

For the first time since the official founding of the Defence Association they would be practicing outside. Rigel grinned at Draco and they both took off, running to catch up with Pansy as she headed for the lake. Even the snow hadn't kept the three of them from their daily morning run though the first few days, until they had ploughed a usable path along the shore, had been rough. Even then they'd had to be more careful than they were used to, so as not to slip on the packed snow. But, as Draco pointed out, it was an excellent practice for their sense of balance and thus their duelling skills. Today however, there was no snow and even the squishy mud of last week had dried up into soft ground again. Rigel felt as if she was flying as she circled the lake at an easy pace between her friends. The three of them did two laps in the time the rest of the DA did one and Rigel felt pleasantly warmed up and energized by the time Draco led the group into their stretches and footwork exercises.

They would finally take up the one-on-one duels again today. The last weeks had been spent bringing the newest members up to speed, practicing dodging and targeting and discussing tactics. There hadn't been room enough to have people fighting in pairs, with a safe distance between the different fights, in the classroom they'd been using for their meetings. Instead they had done a few free-for-alls or split into two groups facing off across the room. Rigel supposed she should be grateful because that time had given her a chance to get a handle on the free duelling instincts Leo had been sharpening during winter break and she was now less likely to physically attack her opponent than she had been in January. With the time-turner back around her neck her weeks were once again 14 days long at least and she had passed time equivalent to more than three month since Christmas, settling back solidly into her Hogwarts routine.

When the time came to find a duelling partner, the old DA hands drifted automatically into the pairings from their last duel before winter break.

"You guys sure you don't want to mix it up a bit?" Draco asked dubiously. Pansy smirked at him. Pansy and Ron had been duelling each other exclusively during all their Sunday meetings before the break.

"Well the pairings were quite well matched last time" their friend amended. "So we'll see if anything has changed. But let's switch after the first duel. The whole point in forming this club was to have a greater variety of partners." Turning to the rest of the group he called "Everyone pick a partner and spread out. Make sure you leave enough of a distance to the other pairs to avoid any interruption through stray jinxes. When you're all in position I'll count you in."

Rigel faced off against Rookwood. She was really looking forward to this. She had been doing daily drills of course, both for wandwork, footwork and the rough and tumble hand to hand fighting Leo was teaching her. But she hadn't done any one-on-one fighting in what felt like several month. Well it had been three month. For her at least. She was determined not to give in to her free-duelling instincts this time. Could she beat Rookwood relying on her spellwork alone? He was incredibly fast and could work many of the spells from his impressive repertoire nonverbally, which not only made the casting quicker but additionally led to the spells being harder to recognise and counter against. She'd been working on increasing her own casting rate though and learned several handy new spells from the duelling book Remus had given Archie for Christmas.

When Draco gave the signal to start Rigel immediately shot two quick stunning spells at her opponent. Instead of dodging his incoming impedimenta jinx, she blocked it with a shield, standing as motionless as she could in imitation of Rookwood himself. She doubted she'd be able to do this for very long but she wanted to see if her deviation from her usual restless stile would faze him. They stood like this for maybe a minute, both motionless except for the smallest of wrist movements as they flicked their wands, exchanging curses at lightning speed. Then Rigel started walking forward. The reduced distance meant less time to react before a spell reached you. The pressure built. She was trying to force him to move, make him back up. But the upperclassman remained standing exactly where he'd started off while the hexes flew between them at ever increasing speed. Rigel thought she could actually feel the air heating up between them and was just starting to wonder how long she'd be able to keep this up when she felt her stomach turn over.

Rigel glanced down in surprise. Had he gotten a jinx past her defence? The momentary distraction proved her undoing in such close quarters as his next impedimenta curse hit her full on. She thought she could actually feel bone move as she was blasted of her feet and thrown back several meters. All the air left her lungs when her back connected solidly with the ground. Completely winded she struggled to draw breath. And still she felt her insides writhing and skin bubbling in that strange way that had distracted her in the first place. She wondered what jinx it was and what exactly it did. It felt almost like the changes affected by Pollyjuice Potion.

Rigel froze, horrible comprehension dawning just as Rookwood called her name in a concerned tone. She threw up a shield to keep him back, thinking frantically. The doses of Pollyjuice, she'd been cooking up for Archie and herself, were designed to last a little less than a year so they could renew them each summer. Due to excessive use of the time-turner however, Rigel had been moving through more time than the rest of the world. And now her year was up. She had changed back into Harriett Potter right here on the Hogwarts lawn. She tried to contain her panic as she noticed several people coming closer, no doubt wondering if she was all right. Until she could change herself back into Rigel she needed a reason for any differences her friends might notice. In desperation she cast a stinging hex on her face to distort her features. Her eyes watered from the blinding pain that hit her as her face swelled up rapidly. That reminded Rigel of her eye colour. Her face was now so bloated that it would probably be difficult for anyone to even see her eyes but just to be on the safe side she used a handy little spell from Leo's disguise book to make them grey again. Then she took down the shield and sat up slowly, shaking her head from side to side as if dazed.

"Whoa, what was that?" she asked an upcoming Rookwood, accepting the hand he offered to pull her back to her feet.

He frowned at her distorted face. "Nothing I cast should have done that. Maybe we got stray hexes after all. Looks like a stinging hex or swelling charm. Here, I'll fix it."

"No!" she cried, hurriedly taking a step backwards. At his slightly hurt expression she quickly added "Thanks for the offer but it didn't feel like a stinging hex. Since I don't know what else it could be though, I think I'd better go to the hospital wing in case there are complications. Maybe two spells got mixed or something."

"I thought you hated hospital wings." Rosier had sidled up. Oh bother.

"I do. But I've spent enough time in this one by now that I've gotten used to it."

"Great. I'll walk you up."

"Oh no. Don't interrupt your training on my account. Rookwood hasn't even gotten a full first duel."

"Yeah he did." Rosier looked down at her with a wicked grin. "You're just grumpy because you lost. But you're right to feel sorry for him. After all of us watching him blast you halfway back to the castle he'll be hard put to find another partner today."

"So you should really stay here and help out your friend."

"Not happening." the older boy laughed. "I'm tapped out as it is. Why don't you help out a friend and let me escape to the castle with you?"

"There's really no need." She tried one last time but didn't continue. If Rosier was determined to do this, she wouldn't be able to sway him and trying too hard would only rouse suspicion. Right now the important thing was to get away before Draco came over and turned his empathy on her. She could always try getting rid of Rosier in the castle.

"Well come on then." She sighed. Turning abruptly and heading for the front doors.

"So, Mission Dodge the DA accomplished. Are you really tapped out or were you just afraid of actually working up a sweat?" Rigel eyed Rosier sideways, trying to grin at him but wincing as the movement strained the already taunt skin of her swollen face. She rolled her shoulders, trying to release her aching back muscles that protested their recent collision with the ground.

Rosier shrugged. "Close enough. We can't all be lord level wizards after all. That's not the way to the hospital wing." He added, catching her arm as she was about to turn into a bathroom.

"I know." She said, glairing pointedly at his hand on her arm until he released her. Rigel opened the bathroom door and ushered the older boy in with a mocking bow before elaborating. "I want to get a good look in the mirror first so I fully understand the symptoms and after Madam Pomfrey tells me what the problem is and how to fix it, I can recognize it if I see it again."

She stepped up to a mirror over one of the sinks, noting with satisfaction that her features were indeed distorted beyond recognition. Her face looked even more painful than it felt. She turned her head this way and that, examining it thoroughly, carefully touching the swollen flesh with her fingers. Unless she was mistaken, the swelling was already receding, her magic working to undo the damage. Finally Rosier let out the sigh she'd been waiting for. He'd lasted longer than she'd been expecting, the stubborn git.

"Feel free to leave if I'm boring you."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"I will be if you keep distracting me."

"I'm not distracting you. I'm just standing here."

"You're staring at me. Just like you keep doing when I try to work in the common room. I can't concentrate like that. It's irritating."

He gave a satisfied smirk. She'd always thought he kept watching her out of boredom or maybe to annoy Draco but perhaps he'd been trying to get a rise out of her all along. "Oh? Why did you never say anything?" Rosier asked in an innocent tone that didn't fool her at all.

"I'm saying something now." Rigel snapped. She had to get away from him to start fixing her appearance. She always kept some of Archie's hair in her potions kit but she wasn't even sure if there was a dose of the long lasting Pollyjuice left. If she had to brew up a new batch she'd need to time-turn back a month to have it ready by today. But either way she'd need her book bag, which contained not only her potions kit but also the map and invisibility cloak. Now that she was sure her features wouldn't be recognized, walking through the common room wouldn't be a problem. With Draco and Blaise still at the DA meeting chances were their room was empty. Going there would also have the nice side effect of losing Rosier since he wouldn't be able to follow her down the third-year corridor. It was perfect.

"You don't happen to have a quill and parchment on you? Do you?" she asked, trying to sound idle and distracted. "I'd better take notes on this."

Rosier raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Seriously? Only you would try to make a study of your own medical predicament."

"Well it's the best way to learn really. I should write down exactly how it felt and what the visible symptoms are. The condition seems to be stable, no immediate danger and it's not as bad as it looks. So I should try and salvage the situation by at least getting a lesson out of it. Don't you think? So, quill? Parchment?"

"No Rigel, I didn't take writing supplies to our duelling practice." He sounded definitely amused now, a wry smile playing around his lips. Good. Make him think everything was normal and Rigel was just being her usual weird self.

"Well then. I guess I'll have to get my own." she sighed, turning around and walking out of the bathroom, headed for the dungeons.

Rosier fell into step beside her but didn't speak again until they'd reached the common room. On the way toward the third-year corridor, however, he stopped her again with a hand on her arm.

"Come this way." He made to walk down the sixth-year corridor instead.

Rigel stopped dead, straining against his pull. "What? I can't go down there. I'm not allowed."

"Sure you are. I'm inviting you. You can come in as long as I take you."

"And why would you want to do that?"

"You were the one who wanted to come down here to take notes. You asked for writing things. I got them in our room and it'll be quiet there, too, with Edmund still outside."

"I said I'd get my own things and since my roommates are out as well, our dorm will be just as quiet."

"But somehow I doubt you'd invite me down your corridor." the older boy pointed out.

"So?"

"So I said I'd accompany you to the hospital wing and that's what I'll do. If you want to make detours that's fine by me but I'm not letting you out of my sight until I know you're ok. What if you collapse in your empty dorm? There'll be no one around to help you."

"I'm not going to collapse. I feel fine." Rigel said exasperated.

"How can you know that? You don't really know what happened. You were so worried about complications you preferred going to the hospital wing instead of letting Edmund fix you when two years ago you walked around with a broken wrist for weeks rather than go there." Rosier's voice was steadily rising. He seemed to be getting exasperated himself and they'd started to attract curious glances. While Rigel had thought it safe enough to walk through the common room with her swollen face, drawing attention by causing a scene there hadn't been on her agenda.

"Alright, alright I'm coming. Merlin's beard, keep it down." She allowed Rosier to pull her down the corridor but kept on muttering, "Honestly Aldon, I'm beginning to understand Rookwood's frequent use of sleeping charms on you." In fact, that was probably exactly what she'd have to do to him once they'd reached his dorm. She didn't actually know how to do a sleeping charm but a stunning spell should work just as well. It's not like it would harm him and Rookwood could revive him once he got back.

The sixth year opened the first door on the left and pushed her into the room. It was somewhat smaller than her own dorm, containing only two beds on opposite sides of the room. Rigel could immediately guess which side was Rookwood's as there was a poster depicting mammal taxonomy, drawn like a family tree, on the wall as well as several anatomical charts. One was a picture of a dragon showing all its bones and muscles and how they moved during flight as the dragon flapped lazily across the canvas. There were also a lot of books lying around and on a shelf on the wall what looked like all the items Selwyn had ever challenged him with in their animal game. Rigel saw feathers, bones, teeth – including one big fang, and even the vial of snake venom she had delivered to the upperclassman in her first year. In comparison, Rosier's side of the room looked nearly drab, meticulously clean and showing no obvious hints of his interests.

Reminded of her reason for being there, Rigel looked around to see the older boy had shut the door and was leaning against it, his arms crossed, studying her. He sneered at her when she raised an eyebrow.

"Come now Rigel, don't bother with your confused 'What's going on?' look with me. You know exactly why you're here."

"Excuse me?"

"You obviously don't want to go to the hospital wing. That was just an excuse to get away from everyone. You've been trying to shake me ever since we got back to the castle. What I can't figure out is why. If you already know what's wrong, why didn't you just fix it?"

Rigel didn't have time for this. She had to get back to the dormitory so she could time-turn under her invisibility cloak before the rest of the DA returned. She moved toward him, reaching for her wand. She'd blast him out of the way if necessary. But Rosier must have been expecting this – he'd probably been knocked out in close quarters by Rookwood too many times. He shouted "accio wand" before Rigel could get a grip on it and caught her wand deftly from the air when it zoomed toward him. He tossed both their wands onto his bed with a grimace of distaste, all the while staring unblinkingly at her. Rigel swerved, heading for the bed instead, intent on retrieving her wand. But Rosier was faster. Before she had taken two steps he'd caught her, gripping her upper arms tightly and spinning her around to face him. She reacted instinctively, shrugging out of his hold in a fluid motion born of many hours of self-defence training. He came right back at her, shoving her up against the door with his hands on her chest. Her newly soft and curvy chest. They both froze, Rosier's eyes going wide as he stared at her in abject horror.

Rigel pushed him off her in a last show of defiance before sliding down to sit on the floor dejectedly. All the fight had gone out of her and she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to hold the tears at bay. After all this time, all the lying and scheming and sneaking around, this was how it ended. She hoped she'd still be able to get out of Hogwarts, to let Rigel disappear but now that it was out that Rigel was a girl, would someone make the connection to Harriett Potter? Was she to lose everything?

Rosier's face softened as he saw her break down right in front of him. He crouched awkwardly next to her, extended a hand but stopped short of actually touching. The pushy git, who did not seem to know the meaning of personal space, was afraid of touching her. A humourless laugh escaped her at the irony of it all. Now that it didn't matter anymore, when he'd already discovered her secret, he was suddenly afraid to intrude. She looked up at him, sniffing. His face was a mask of confusion. She could almost see the wheels turning as he considered everything he knew about her in light of this new information, working it all out. A single tear broke through her control to trek its lonely path down her cheek. And then the dam broke. The floodgates opened and she was suddenly in his lap, crying into his shoulder while he rocked her gently, patting her hair and murmuring comforting nothings to her as she valiantly but vainly fought for control. Later she would wonder why he'd take her into his arms so readily after just finding out that her lies extended further that he could possibly have imagined. Perhaps it was just his pureblood upbringing that left him unable to watch a witch despair without trying to intervene. No matter how much those thoughts would puzzle her later, she had no room for them at the time as she clung to him as though getting ready to apperate with him. Her face hurt, the swollen flesh being distorted further by the sobs wracking her body. She disentangled herself from Aldon's arms and crawled over to the bed, picking up her wand she used a healing spell on her face to counteract the effects of the stinging hex and relieve at least some of the pain. A distant part of her mind, that was even now calculating the repercussions, noted that it might be better for him to see her reals features now. He'd see she wasn't Rigel and she'd be able to say she had been standing in for him only today. That way Rigel would still be known as a boy.

She hardly noticed Aldon cast a locking and muffling spell at the door before he came up behind her to where she'd stayed next to the bed, head and arms buried against the mattress. He began stroking her head soothingly, gently massaging her shoulders while she cried herself into exhaustion.

When she finally drew back and tried to wipe her raw eyes on a sleeve, he offered her his handkerchiefs. She gave a watery laugh, remembering what Archie had said about the benefit of monograms when giving out handkerchiefs to distraught girls.

Aldon raised an eyebrow in silent question but Harry just shook her head with a slight smile before taking his handkerchief to wipe her face, for good measure blowing her nose as well. She cast cleaning and drying charms on it before handing it back.

Rigel scooted around until she faced the older boy, still kneeling on the floor, one cheek resting on his matrass as he gazed at her with his eyes of molten gold. She copied him and they stayed like that for what felt like a long time, just staring at each other. Aldon's gaze was searching and his eyes scanned her face as if he wanted to commit every little detail to memory but Harry felt too drained to bring herself to care. He knew so much already, she was sure he'd figured it all out – or would soon enough. After the New Year's Eve gala everyone knew which half-blood girl looked a lot like Rigel Black after all. Her suspicion was confirmed when he narrowed his eyes and raised his wand at her face. She stayed where she was not even trying to raise her own wand in defence. But he just muttered "finite incantatem" and gave a satisfied little nod as her eyes changed back to their natural green.

After what felt like an eternity Harry finally ventured a "Now what?"

Aldon's eyes flicked up to meet hers. "Well, as soon as you feel up to talking, I do have a few questions." A slight smirk curled his lips as he gave what had to be the understatement of the century. He radiated more curiosity than a fire emitted heat. Discovering her secret had probably raised more questions in him than it answered. "But we've been here for a while now, so I guess the others will be done soon, if they aren't already. You don't seem quite ready to face more questions yet – or to face other people for that matter. You could stay here for a while but I suppose you should change your appearance back now, before anyone notices. Do you have everything you need for that or do you need help?"

She marvelled at his ability to be so calm about this. The whole incident should have shocked him more than it did her. After all, she'd always known her secret coming out to be a possibility. She'd handled the situation with cool proficiency when Flint had confronted her during her first week at Hogwarts. Aldon on the other hand could not have been prepared to discover that a boy he'd known for two and a half years was actually a girl. Still, he managed to take a step back and prioritize what necessary action had to be taken. Why couldn't she? Perhaps it was that being exposed as a girl made her feel more vulnerable than just to be unmasked as an imposter; though why that should be the case she didn't know. There was no logical explanation for it. She certainly didn't consider girls to be weaker than boys. Hadn't she shown she could keep up with the best of them? She had flown her broom to help Draco practice Quidditch – and even climbed a tree – with a broken wrist her first year. She'd gotten through Flint's ridiculously dangerous Quidditch try-out parkour in second year and fought against an undead basilisk a few months later. She was a better fighter than Aldon and he was three years older than her. There was no reason to feel inferior. She simply had to pull herself together.

Rigel took a deep breath. "I should have all I need in my school bag. I just need to get that from my room. That's what I get for not taking it with me." She sighed and raised her wand to once again disguise her face with a stinging hex. "This is gonna hurt."


	3. Busted (continued)

A/N: Ok, so I've been working hard at getting the second half of Busted out before Violet puts up Chapter 10 of AA and some of the premises I've made get contradicted...

I've had a really hard time putting the different snatches of conversation I had in my head into a coherent order. Thanks for all the encouraging reviews. I don't think I would have kept working on this particular scene without them.

The next update will probably take a while as I've got to go take care of my real life for a change.

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 **The Reckless Ruse** : **Busted (continued)**

 _Rigel took a deep breath. "I should have all I need in my school bag. I just need to get that from my room. That's what I get for not taking it with me." She sighed and raised her wand to once again disguise her face with a stinging hex. "This is gonna hurt."_

He stalled her, catching her hand in his own. "What are you doing?"

"I need to cast another stinging hex on my face so nobody will realize my features have changed. And I'd better adjust my eye colour again, too."

Aldon smiled gently at her as, instead of releasing her hand, he rose, pulling her up with him and manoeuvred her to sit on the bed. He stroked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked at her with such tenderness that she felt her heart clench. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had looked at her like that. And he was looking at her, the real her that no one had seen in two years.

"I like your eyes the way they are. Just like Rose described them. They are even brighter than I remember them from the gala. Why don't you stay here for the rest of the day and spend some time in your own skin? I can ask Edmund to stay away until tonight. He'll understand. And I'll tell the others you're just a little out of sorts after what happened today and needed some time without everyone asking what's wrong. I'll just get one of your dorm mates to fetch your bag so you can change back when you're ready to leave." He rose, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "Draw the curtains, won't you? In case Edmund comes back before I get a chance to talk to him."

"You won't tell anyone?" Rigel hated how small her voice sounded. He was right in that she was exhausted and needed time to rest and regroup. She also needed to talk to him about what he had learned and what he would do with that knowledge. Hopefully she could strike some kind of deal with him, as she had with Flint, but she wasn't up to that at this moment. Still, the idea of letting him walk out that door without some kind of safeguard made her very uncomfortable.

"I won't." He promised. "Though you and I will have a serious conversation about this later today."

She watched him leave the room before she stretched out on his bed, after kicking off her shoes and drawing the curtains, idly wondering if he appreciated just how difficult it had been not to hit him in the back with a stunning spell and obliviating him. She'd never been a very trusting person and she wasn't at all sure that changing that now was a good idea.

Rigel opened a bleary eye as she felt the matrass dip. Aldon had slipped through the curtains and deposited her bag next to her. She reached for it but he caught her hand once again, saying "Relax. It won't go anywhere." He settled himself on the bed, back leaning against the wall; one leg folded in and the knee of the other pointing straight up. He tugged her over until her head rested on his thigh. His raised leg leaned comfortably against her back as she curled up again and went back to dozing. She relaxed under the soothing strokes of his long fingers in her hair.

Normally when Rigel awoke, it was instantaneous. So coming to slowly was a new and slightly disorienting experience. The first thing she noticed was that she felt warm and strangely content. Next she realized that she was covered by a blanket. That was unusual as she normally slept on top of the covers. Then she felt something move next to her and woke with a start. The something in bed with her gave an echoing start, immediately followed by a hiss of pain. She opened her eyes to see Rosier looking down on her with a wry smile as he rubbed the back of his head with one hand, apparently he'd just hit it on the wall. Everything came suddenly back to Rigel and she sat up quickly, shedding the blanket he must have placed on her.

"Morning." The older boy yawned, his smile getting warmer.

Harry's green eyes widened in arlarm. "What time is it?"

The upperclassman chuckled as he reached for his pocket watch. "Don't worry I'm sure it's still Sunday. We can't have slept that long." He opened the watch and frowned at the many dials that sat unmoving behind the glass casing. He shook it slightly but everything remained still. Cursing softly he shut the lid and stowed the watch back in his pocket. "It's been acting up for a while now. Keeps getting stuck. I think it might have been hit by a spell during duelling practice. But there's no point in getting it fixed now. I'll be getting the Rosier watch when I turn seventeen next month anyway."

"Family heirloom?" Rigel asked while digging out her wand. "Better not leave that in your pocket when duelling. Tempem eda." The wand spun on her flat hand, indicating first the hour and then the minutes. It wasn't the most exact spell, as the only reference was her middle finger being the positon of the number twelve on a clock but it served her purpose well enough, telling Rigel that it was a few minutes after four in the afternoon.

"Handy." commented Rosier, taking out his own wand to try the spell.

While he was occupied Rigel routed through her school bag. With the undetectable extension charms Sirius had placed on it, it was quite roomy and she had taken to carrying around a lot of things constantly so she wouldn't have to return to her dorm when she was time-turned. She finally located her potions kit under several heavy books on advanced ancient runes she was reading for Flint's latest essay. Next she started going through the specially sealed compartments in her potions kit, many of which had also been extended. She smiled in relief when she found a small bottle labelled 'PPJP'. She wouldn't have to spend a whole month in time-turned isolation. It saved her from figuring out where she'd sleep during that time – and brew her potion as well, as her dorm room, lab and the room of requirement would all be occupied by alternate versions of her own self. She guessed Aldon might let her sleep here if she explained it to him. No that wouldn't work she'd have to explain it to him a month in the past and that obviously hadn't happened or he wouldn't have been so shocked to discover she was a girl. – And he would be sleeping here. Where had that thought come from anyway?

Harry mentally shook herself. If she ever really had to redo a whole month at once she could leave Hogwarts through one of the secret tunnels marked on the Marauder's Map and floo to her apartment in Dogwood Lane. Leo would be happy to see her but he'd also have a lot of questions as to why she was living in the Alleys for a month. Especially if she went now, looking more girly than usual. As she still had one conversation with an inquisitive friend awaiting her, Rigel was glad to avoid another. Luckily, the little vial of permanent Pollyjuice Potion spared her such a fate for the moment. Now that she came to think of it, she remembered that Snape had told her she could only repeat a maximum of one week at a time with her time-turner anyway. She might have been able to take the potion with her as she relived that one week four times to stretch it into a month but with the time-turning she had already done over the past seven days she'd have exceeded the maximum of six versions of herself at any given time. Setting the vial down carefully, she decided right then to make sure she always had some spare Pollyjuice Potion, both the long and short lasting varieties, in future.

Harry was about to look for the other ingredients she'd need to revert to the physical appearance of Rigel Black, when Rosier snatched up the little bottle.

"What's this?" he asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Pollyjuice Potion? No wonder you changed back all of a sudden, we always practice for more than an hour and you didn't bring anything to drink with you."

Rigel blinked. Why did he have to be so observant? Ah well, what was one more lie? She widened her eyes slightly and started prattling. "You're right. And it wouldn't have looked too strange to take a bottle with me when exercising but I didn't expect it to take this long. Rigel never told me he turned into such a sports enthusiast. He never was at home." She had to convince him she was only filling in for her cousin today. Her mind scrambled for a reason to make that necessary.

Rosier smirked. "Oh wasn't he? That's strange. The way Pansy and Draco told it, he was so fit at the beginning of the school year, he simply must have exercised over the summer."

"Really?" Harry asked, feigning interest. "I never knew. But then he's always been very secretive."

"You don't say."

"Yes. I don't know where he gets it from. None of the rest of our family are like that."

"Oh? And here I thought _you_ were like that."

She frowned at him. "Where'd you get that idea?" This wasn't going the way it was supposed to.

"From your uncle at the gala. He seemed to think it strange that you were so open and friendly. Like he wasn't used to seeing you this way. On the other hand, he never noticed anything off about Rigel's behaviour. We all know your cousin acts less reserved around his father than he usually does. Now why is it that your family seems to think your characters are exactly reversed to what your friends have discovered them to be?" the older boy asked, voice tight, glaring at her.

Oh crap.

She cast around for something to say but came up empty. What was the point anyway? He'd obviously guessed the truth already.

As if to prove her point Rosier continued. "For someone who is unaware of her cousin's habits, you certainly have the finer points of his character down to a T. You've shown no trouble navigating the castle and were aware of all manner of small details like the fact that you can't enter the corridor leading to the dorms unless you are in that year or being taken by someone who is. And you've demonstrated you know a lot about our personal interactions when you regaled me for always staring at you. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you're the person I've been getting to know as Rigel for more than two years now. You must have switched places with your cousin the moment the two of you left for school for the first time. What I can't figure out is how you managed to pull it off or why you'd even want to do that in the first place."

Harry had to smile a little at that. Flint had guessed at the reason right away, though he didn't know who she really was. There was nothing for it. Rosier obviously knew too much to misdirect him now and if she wanted him to agree to some sort of deal she needed to humour him. So she explained how this solution enabled both her and Archie to follow their dreams.

He stared at her incredulously. "You did all that to get a bit of an academic head start? It can't even make that much of a difference. You can take healing lessons here as well and they have to teach potions at that American school. Every wizarding school does."

"Healing classes at AIM are far more extensive than what can be covered in lessons here. And their potions tract is nowhere near as good as the one at Hogwarts. Snape's a genius and I would have done anything to study under him."

"Obviously." Rosier blew out a breath, looking frustrated. When he continued, he spoke more slowly, as though trying to reason with an imbecile, seeming to choose his words with care. "It can't possibly give you enough of an edge to justify the risks you're taking. You can't start making a name for yourself while pretending to be someone else though you've certainly made a name for your cousin. How are you expecting to reclaim your own life after seven years at school? Or were you planning on pretending to be a boy for the rest of your life?"

"Of course not. We've been studying each other's syllabus as much as possible so we both know what the other is supposed to know."

"There's no possible way he can learn enough about all the people you know to fool them after they spent seven years with you. Were you planning to just break ties with every one?"

"Yeah well." She floundered. "I'll have to break ties anyway. Even if Archie maintains some sort of contact it's not like I'll be able to switch places with him every time I want to talk to someone I met at Hogwarts. I've tried to keep my distance, to be inconspicuous, not to attract too much attention, it just kind of happened."

Rosier let out a humourless laugh. "Harry you've been nothing if not conspicuous from the moment I met you."

"Don't." She said, feeling panic rise in her. "Don't call me 'Harry'. It's 'Rigel' while I'm at Hogwarts. You can't get the two confused." Not like she'd been doing. It was just difficult to think of herself as 'Rigel' when she knew she looked like 'Harry'. And she still didn't know how she'd get him to actually agree to keep her secret. She took a deep breath to try and regain her focus, promising herself a long meditation session as soon as this crisis was resolved. _I am Rigel_. She told herself. _As long as I'm at Hogwarts I am Rigel. No reason to get confuse about it, just like I told Rosier. Or was it Aldon?_ She'd been calling him by his first name for over a year now. But only out loud, when she spoke to him directly. In her mind he'd remained Rosier. Until a few hours ago when she'd lain crying in his arms. Just the thought of it was enough to make her flush in embarrassment. Now she was as confused about who he was, as she was about herself. Time to make a decision. Her green eyes met his golden ones. He was staring at her with such intensity as though he hoped he'd be able to read her thoughts if he just looked hard enough. But what need had he of it? He already knew all of her secrets. Well, most of them. Nearly as many as Archie, more than Leo. She decided that if he were to join them in that, she might as well call him by his first name.

"It's too late to back out now, isn't it?" Aldon asked in a softly, sounding very concerned. "You've spent too much time here already, become too well known. Why did you have to come here? If you're only studying healing to keep up the pretence then surely if you'd gone to AIM and spent all your time on the things that interest you, you'd have gotten just as far in potions."

"I wanted to learn from Professor Snape. He's a genius. I'd never have gotten to where I am today without him." Never mind the additional practice and information she'd gotten from trying to keep the ruse going. She'd never have studied Pollyjuice Potion so intensively otherwise and if she hadn't needed money to rent an apartment she'd never have gotten a job at Krait's and the internship at the Potions Guild as a result.

"You can't know that –"

"Yes, I can."

"But it's not worth your life." Aldon almost shouted. He jumped up from the bed and started to pace the room. Rigel didn't think she'd ever seen him this riled up. She wondered if this was how Leo would react if he ever actually found out her secret. It was kind of scary.

"What if anyone ever finds out?" the older boy demanded.

Well it wasn't really a question of if but of when and who, wasn't it? She was still waiting to figure out the 'what's going to happen' part where he was concerned, though it didn't sound as if he was planning on turning her in. Maybe it was time to force the issue.

"Someone already did find out." She noted drily.

"What? Who?"

"You for one."

He huffed. "I meant someone who isn't your friend, whose knowing would put you in real danger. You realize that they could lock you up in Askaban for the rest of your life for this?"

"Of course I realize that. What, you think this is news to me? You think I didn't think this through before coming here? It's not exactly a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision."

"Well yes, maybe I was hoping you didn't really think this through. Because the alternative is knowing you went into this fully aware of the danger it places you in, a much greater danger than it is for your cousin, I might add, and you did it anyway. Would you have gone along with it if the roles were reversed? If your cousin might end up imprisoned for life or even subjected to a dementor's kiss? I think not. Once again you demonstrate your total disregard for your own safety. How can you place so little value on your own life?"

"Because if I didn't do this, it wouldn't be a life worth living for. What good is knowing you're safe if it means you can't follow your dreams, if there's no way to realize your ambitions? You're a Slytherin as well, you should know all about ambition and how it sometimes drives you to bend the rules."

"You didn't just bend the rules. You've twisted them so much it's impossible to discern their original shape."

"What?" she couldn't help but give a little snort of laughter at the picture he painted.

Aldon grinned at her in response but his tone remained serious. "I mean it. I know you're not above exaggeration and bending the truth along with the rules but there is only so much bending you can do to the rules until you've clearly broken them. And we're not just talking about school rules here. This is the law."

"There's really –" she began but he stopped her with a raised hand and continued.

"That's not what I'm complaining about however. What bothers me is that you have once again put yourself into immense danger without telling your friends about it. How can we help you if we don't even know when it might be needed?"

"You want me to tell my friends? Besides putting you all in danger just by association, all your parents are members of the SOW party, some, like Draco's father, are even on the board of governors for Hogwarts. They're the whole reason I couldn't come here under my own name. Anyone I tell will have a conflict of interest between their friendship with me and loyalty to their family. You may be fine with that since you've told me that you hate your parents but do you really expect me to put the others in that position?"

That shut him up.

Rigel decided to use his silence to raise some questions of her own. She finally breached the matter of how he planned to handle knowing her secret. When he agreed to keep it, not setting any conditions, she went on explaining the danger involved both to her and him and what precautions could be taken against it. She listed everything from obliviating him to occlumency and the sealing curse. In the end he agreed to let her seal the truth inside him like she had done with Flint but unlike the Quidditch Captain he asked for nothing in return. Rigel felt almost bad about it, considering how much work she had to constantly put into her arrangement with Flint, but not so bad as to reconsider. It was necessary and would protect Aldon as much as her. When the spell was complete she felt a great weight lift from her mind. As long as he didn't noticeably change his behaviour towards her, everything should be fine.

It was getting late so Rigel decided it was time to readjust her appearance. She had taken out the little bottle of Pollyjuice Potion earlier but still needed to merge her and Archie's hair. She hoped she hadn't changed too much since last summer. While she still had her cousin's hair in her potions kit – and since the hair preserved the essence as it had been when it was cut, any changes in Archie's appearance wouldn't register – she hadn't kept any of her own hair from summer. No need to put it in her potion's kit when she carried it around on her head after all but people were bound to notice if she ended up looking very different this evening from how they had seen her this morning.

After locating the small vial with Archie's hair, she opened the compartment of her potions kit that contained her notes and leafed through the sheaves of parchment until she found the one depicting the runes she needed for the essence blending spell. She set the sheet aside to stow the others in her potions kit once more. Predictably Aldon picked it up immediately.

"What's this?" He wrinkled his nose in a show of indolent distain. "It looks horribly complicated."

Rigel smiled. As far as she knew Aldon didn't take runes but he seemed to approach any academic subject with the same detached aloofness. She couldn't remember ever seeing him studying for anything or even reading a book. He only kept interrupting her when she did so. However, he was so knowledgeable in general that his sharp intelligence couldn't account for it alone. He had to be studying sometimes even if he hid it well. Or maybe he gleaned all his learning from pestering other people. "It's a runic circle that will shape the magic for a spell I need to change my appearance." she explained.

"And the runes anchor the magic to make the spell permanent and keep it going even when you're asleep or otherwise distracted?"

"No." Rigel frowned. That was actually an interesting assumption. She wondered if it was possible to use runes for something like that. Maybe to create an amulet that worked like a kind of glamour. Seeing the other Slytherin cock his head in question, she elaborated. "I use a potion for that. But you need to add the essence of the person you want to change into so I need to create the essence of 'Rigel Black'".

"What do you mean 'create' it? Don't you have some of his hair?"

"Not yet, seeing as Rigel Black doesn't exist."

"Of course he exists. Everyone knows that Sirius Black has a son. I don't see how you'd be able to lie about that. You said he's taken your place at AIM. So why don't you just use your cousin's hair to change into him?"

"Because I don't want to run around in the body of a boy for seven years." Rigel nearly shouted. Rosier had a way of driving her up the wall with his incessant questioning. Aldon, she reminded herself. Now that he knew her most intimate secret he had suddenly become Aldon, even in her mind – at least most of the time.

Aldon's eyes widened in shocked understanding, "You've been a girl the whole time?" He frowned as he seemed to consider everything he knew about her in light of this new information. "That certainly explains a lot." Then his eyes narrowed in almost comic contradiction of the expression he'd worn only a moment before. "And Malfoy knows. I thought you said you didn't tell anyone."

He sounded a little jealous.

"What? No he doesn't. What makes you think that?" Things would get a lot more complicated if any of her dorm mates ever found out. There was no way they wouldn't change their behaviour to only dress in the bathroom as she did. And that way the other two would know something was up as well.

"He hinted that there was a reason why you don't like other people touching you."

Oh, that. Right. Rigel felt an immediate wave of guilt at the reminder how much she misled her best friend.

"You're the only one at Hogwarts who knows Rigel Black is really a girl." She explained calmly. Not even Flint had figured that part out.

"Flint? He knows something?"

Crap. Had she said that out loud?

"How did you get him to stay quiet about this? Wait. Oh no. You're not telling me you're the one who's been doing all his homework."

"You're right." she smirked. "I'm not telling you that."

Seeing Aldon gear up for another discussion Rigel sighed in exasperation. At this rate she'd never get back to her own dorm room again.


	4. Rogues

Set in the summer after Harry's 3rd year at Hogwarts.

Latest story update when this was uploaded: the Futile Facade chapter 1

 **Disclaimer** : I don't own any of the characters or places from Harry Potter, Song of the Lioness or the Rigel Black series.

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Harry leaned casually against a wall in the small courtyard behind Leo's apartment, expertly eyeing his row of third floor windows on the opposite wall. Since Leo had finally taught her how to scale a building in the first week of the summer holidays, she'd made the climb many times. Still, it wouldn't do to get complacent and rush into this without making sure all the hand and footholds she needed to use were still in place. She had learned this the hard way three weeks ago when Leo had moved the dustbins several feet from their usual position and unscrewed part of the drainpipe just to teach her that particular lesson. Since then she had taken to casing the building before every ascent as though it was her first time. Leo kept making small changes to keep her on her toes. Only last week he had vanished the bars in front of one of the second story windows she always used as a handhold and replaced them with an illusion. Harry had only notice because a bird had flown through what looked like solid metal. So for today she had read up on a series of screening charms that would tell her if the façade had been tampered with. So far it all looked innocent. Too innocent. Harry narrowed her eyes at the third story window that was halfway open, all but asking her to break in. It led to Leo's living room and was her favourite point of entry. It would be just like him to lay this kind of trap. Make it easier to access physically and then ward magically against intrusion. Harry sent a quick ward detection spell at the window. It soared through harmlessly without triggering a response. Harry frowned. Even if the window was not warded specifically, the other wards in the apartment should be activated when Leo wasn't home. And she had checked to make sure he was at the Phoenix before coming here.

She had to get into his apartment today if she didn't want to let him win the game this week. Technically she had four days left but she usually didn't go to the alleys during the weekends, spending the time with her family, and with the Quidditch World Finals on Monday and not knowing how long the game would take, she preferred doing this today. They had started playing shortly after Leo taught her how to break into a wizarding home. Once a week they would break into each other's apartments and steal something. Some weeks they set specific targets the other had to search for, other weeks anything would do. When both of them had taken something, they would swap their possessions back. If one of them hadn't managed to steal anything or was caught breaking into the other's apartment, they had to buy their things back with ice cream, lunch or tickets to a muggle movie. In a way it was like the game Rookwood and Selwyn used to play though Harry had never actually found out what a forfeit in that game cost. Over the last month she had learned a lot about setting and breaking wards and detecting hidden spells. She had already found out how useful those abilities were for someone who shared a house with pathological pranksters. She'd noticed and quietly disabled the confetti charm on one of her birthday presents and the look on Uncle Sirius' face as he tried to figure out why she hadn't vanished in a cloud of coloured paper shreds had been priceless. Though nothing compared to the look on Leo's face two weeks ago when she'd managed to trap him in a circle of holding wards she'd hidden under her living room carpet. She'd kept him in there for nearly an hour and bargained a week's worth of extra knife fighting lessons out of him. She already got lessons from Marek but there was a reason Marek hadn't beaten Leo yet despite challenging him five times this year already. When she'd finally let him go the King of Thieves had sworn revenge which was why she had to be extra careful today.

Two days ago Leo had stolen the potions book she was currently reading. It was a fascinating treatise on the current state of research on the Wolfsbane Potion, covering all important stages in its invention sixteen years ago as well as any changes made since and how the different versions of the potion varied in their effects. It wasn't even her book. It belonged to Calum and Harry needed to finish reading it soon so she could return it and discuss it with him before she had to leave for school again. The only reason it had been at her apartment at all was because her baby sister Addy took great exception to things that kept her families attention off her and Harry had been concerned for the books safety. Personally she blamed her Uncle Sirius, who watched the girl most days, for spoiling her sister rotten. She had taken to bringing anything she wanted to work on undisturbed to her apartment in the Lower Alleys. No point in letting the place she'd been paying rent on for two years straight go to waste. It was supposed to be a backup in case the ruse she and her cousin had been putting on since they started school three years ago was ever uncovered. But there was no reason not to use the place in the meantime especially since it would lend credence to the story that she'd been living there since the age of twelve if people saw her using it from time to time. Of course Leo had already been helping her support that story for the past two years by coming over to make some noise every now and then to give the impression the place was inhabited. And it actually had been inhabited for the first six months of the year. At the beginning of summer Flint's mother, who had gained a lot of confidence away from her husband, had gotten her own place and moved out again. Harry had visited her for tea a few times, which would support the tale of 'Merriam' being her aunt, who had lived with Harry until she got back on her own feet.

During her recent research into home security Harry had also found a charm to discourage thieves by simulating the presence of an inhabitant through activating lights in different rooms in the early hours of the evening. So far the lighting was just random though theoretically the spell could be adapted to record and simulate the normal movements of the residents. Of course for the spell to get those movement patterns she actually had to spend some time in the evenings in her apartment first. Still, having random lights was better than nothing for the moment and it wasn't as though the spell would discourage anyone who was serious about breaking in. After all, one Hominum Revellio charm would tell anyone who bothered with it that the apartment was, in fact, empty. She thought there must be wards against that, too, but she hadn't been able to find any so far.

The problem with spending time at the apartment was that now it started to contain things she actually cared about, raising the stakes in her game with Leo. In retribution for him taking her book Harry planned on finding his favourite crystal dagger, even if she had to spend the whole day searching his place. She wanted her book back for the weekend. With her parents home to shower Addy with attention she was reasonably sure she could read it at the house without having it shredded. She had to be careful however. Leo was probably counting on her getting impatient and making a mistake. With a slight frown Harry shot another ward detection spell at the window. Still no tell-tale flashes in response. Maybe she was doing it wrong? She repeated the spell at the apartment below. Immediately lights flared, outlining windows, floor and ceiling in a multitude of different coloured lights.

"Nothing wrong with the spell." Harry muttered wryly to herself. Perhaps Leo was hiding his wards? If this was a basic ward detection spell it made sense that there were safeguards against it. She picked up a small pebble off the ground and carefully levitated it toward the window. It got through without any trouble. If there were wards on the window, they seemed not to be triggered by inanimate objects. Had Leo just forgotten to set the wards today? It hadn't happened before but there was a first time for everything. Or maybe he'd just gotten home while she'd been standing here, staring at his back wall.

Only one way to find out. Harry pushed off the wall and walked determinately toward the opposite building. She had checked for everything she could think of. She was as well prepared as was possible, now it was time to see if that was enough. Leo spent most of his time out on the streets so it was highly unlikely that he'd returned to the apartment but if he had she'd just have to be sure he didn't notice her. There was no rule in their game against breaking in while the other was home as long as you managed to avoid detection. She scrambled on top of the nearest dumpster and cast a light sticking charm on the soles and tips of her shoes for better purchase. Deciding that the open window afforded her the chance to try a new way, she climbed the rain pipe all the way to the top, then gripped the drip rail tightly and sticking her feet to the wall shuffled along until she was right above her point of entry. In case Leo was actually home she cast a muffling spell before carefully lowering herself onto the open windowpane. As soon as she could get a foot on either side she pressed her feet against the window glass and let go with her fingers, bending her knees until the sat on top of the window, straddling it like a broom. She carefully bent to the side until she could look into the apartment. Nothing to see. She listened for a moment but all was silent. So she gripped the top of the windowpane tightly with both hands, bracing one foot against it as she placed the other foot on the sill. She slowly shifted her weight onto that foot before she dared release one hand to reach for the inside of the window frame and pull herself over. Harry allowed herself a self-satisfied grin as she sat down on the inside windowsill and released the sticking charm from her feet before dropping to the floor in a silent crouch. This was no time to let her guard down. The fact that there had been no wards at the windows worried her. It might mean Leo was trying something else. Perhaps he had transfigured some of his furniture to act as guardians like the suits of armour at Hogwarts were want to do against intruders. Come to think of it she was probably lucky the dustbins hadn't tried to eat her.

Harry kept her wand at the ready as she slowly moved along the wall, scanning the living room for signs of danger on her way toward the bedroom. If he didn't have the knife with him she was pretty sure that's where he'd keep it. She hoped he didn't have it with him. She hadn't seen it when she'd looked in on him earlier and she couldn't imagine where he'd hide it under his light summer clothes but on the other hand she couldn't really imagine Leo going unarmed. Still, if she didn't find it she'd just have to find something else he valued that much. She was passing the door to the bathroom, thinking about what else Leo would miss enough to encourage a fast trade-off when she was stopped in her tracks by a wand tip settling against the base of her skull. Something shimmered at the edge of her vision and the next moment she felt the blade of a very sharp knife on her throat.

Harry froze. This wasn't exactly how she'd envisioned locating Leo's knife. Her mind skipped back two years to the first time she had been in a situation like this, backed against a wall in a dark alley with a sharp and bloody knife at her throat. That time at least she'd been able to see her attacker. Though thinking back to that particular experience, she wasn't so sure that had been a good thing. Then she had frozen in shock, now however she was much better prepared and while she stilled her whole body, all muscles were tense in anticipation, senses alert.

"Drop the wand." The command was spoken softly, directly into her ear.

She knew exactly how well-honed the edge on Leo's knife was so Harry complied, forcing her muscles to relax, to appear non-threatening and taking care not to brush against the blade or startle the young man into movement until he released her. It might take a while though. Perhaps she shouldn't have gloated so much when she'd managed to trap him, he was sure to take revenge. Well, at least she might actually get her book back now that she'd forfeit the round by getting caught. Of course he'd make her pay through the nose but if she could spend the weekend immersing herself in the intricacies of Wolfsbane brewing, it might be worth it.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Leo's voice sounded muffled and strangely distorted, higher and slightly raspy. Was he using a voice altering spell to unnerve her?

Harry resigned herself to being on the receiving end of some serious gloating. She guessed she'd be standing here for a while. There was no way she'd be able to get out of his strangle hold while he had a wand and knife trained on her. Especially without a wand of her own. Or was there? Her magic didn't create the instinctive Depasco Shield anymore, hadn't done so since she'd started wearing a suppressor last year. The suppressor was gone now but her control on her magic was better than ever and accidental shielding a thing of the past – which was lucky or she might have disintegrated Leo. Since it was neither suppressed anymore nor caught in the bowls of a megalomaniac magical construct her magic's eager personality had surfaced again. It didn't act without her permission but it was there, ready at the edge of her mind, waiting for her call. A Fortis Shield could turn knives as well as magic. Harry had spent a lot of time researching that shield last summer as it was the spell she had used to create her Shield Potion. Imbuing shaped magic was done both wandlessly and non-verbally and she had brewed so many batches of that potion that she could form her magic into a Fortis Shield without a second thought. Though now she'd have to remember to cast it as a spell instead of releasing it the way necessary for imbuing as she was used to doing. The tricky part would be to create it skin tight between herself and Leo's weapons. Tricky but not impossible. The first step was to lull him into a false sense of security, make him think she was resigned to the situation.

"Turning off the wards is considered an invitation by all kinds of shady people." She drawled, only refraining from a careless shrug because, with a knife against her skin, any movement might make her bleed.

"That may be but it takes a special kind of shady to try and steal from the King of Thieves himself…" Harry was only listening with one ear as she turned her thoughts inwards, remembering the feel of the skin-tight shield Voldemort had trapped her in at the end of her second year at Hogwarts. She'd never cast the Fortis Shield without a wand but wandless casting shouldn't take more magic than imbuing. The real problem was that she wouldn't be able to pick up her wand again if she was encased in a shield repelling anything that tried to touch her. She'd have to leave her right hand unprotected. She carefully fixed the way she wanted to build her shield in her mind before she brought her senses outward again.

Leo had stopped talking. In her concentration Harry had lost track of what he'd been saying. She didn't know how long the silence had already stretched. Nor did she have anything inconspicuous to say to him without knowing what he'd been talking about. He'd get suspicious any moment. It was now or never.

Harry took a deep breath. Then she sent a pulse of magic out of her body, a slight Repelling charm to create a little distance between their bodies as well as push off his weapons, immediately snapping the shield into place in the charm's wake. She followed through with a move he'd shown her to break a strangle hold. Normally she wouldn't have tried that while he had a weapon pointed at her, especially since he'd also taught her there was a countermove. But she had confidence in her shield and hoped he'd be too surprised to counter in time. He was. The next moment Harry was free and dived for her wand, tucking herself in tight she took a rolling dive along the narrow corridor. She silently thanked Uncle Remus for firing countless stunners at her during practice until she could roll with this precision otherwise she might have ended up crashing into a wall or doorframe. Harry came up and fell into a fighting stance, wand at the ready, left hand automatically moving toward the knife sheath on her calf, a satisfied grin spreading across her face as she looked up at Leo. Then she froze. With the skin tight shield in place around both her hand and her leg, she couldn't reach the knife. However that seemed to be the least of her problems at the moment, as she stared at the shrouded figure still looming in the bathroom doorway. One thing was clear: it wasn't Leo.

The figure was dressed in flowing summer robes of a dark and dusty grey that wouldn't draw attention in the alleys. The lithe movement reminded Harry of her friend but this person was both smaller and slighter than Leo and the bright eyes flashing at her from the shadow of the robe's hood were brown instead of hazel. A dark red scarf was wrapped around the head and covered the lower part of the face, making it impossible to look for any other recognisable features.

Harry was stunned. Someone had actually broken into Leo's apartment. Someone other than her. That explained why the wards had been off. She silently berated herself for not drawing this conclusion earlier. She had known it was fishy after all. The nerve of it! She suddenly remembered what the intruder had been saying: "It takes a special kind of shady to steal from the King of Thieves." Great. Harry gulped. Who was this? What did they want from Leo? And what would they do with her, now that she had interrupted them, witness to their crime?

Trying to calm her nerves, Harry drew in deep, slow breaths. Her wand had remained steady, pointed at the intruder the whole time. At least the many hours of duelling training had paid off. Even in her surprise Harry's reflexes had kicked in.

Her attacker hadn't moved. Probably they were just as surprised as she had been, shocked that she'd been able to free herself, and were now either recovering or trying to gage her reaction in order to decide on their next move. What should _her_ next move be? She had to inform Leo. If there were people, other than her, breaking into his apartment he had to know. But how to inform him? Harry didn't know how to call a Patronus and use it to send messages. Usually when she wanted to talk to Leo, she just looked for him in the alleys. Or sent an owl or left a message at his apartment. All these methods worked but they weren't fast. She didn't know how to get him here now. He probably had some kind of notification tied to his wards that would inform him of intruders. But the wards hat been turned off. Without knowing how it had been done, Harry had little hope of enabling them again. Especially while still under thread from the other wizard.

Maybe she didn't need to inform Leo directly. If any of his subjects noticed something was wrong at his place, they'd tell him as quickly as possible. Harry just needed to make as much noise as she could while also trying to get away from her attacker. Or, better yet, detain them. Leo would surely like to know why they had broken into his apartment, what they'd been looking for. He'd want to question them. Harry had barely come to this conclusion when a read beam of light streaked toward her. The intruder had apparently gotten over the shock. She managed to get a shield up just in time, taking a step back for good measure. Leo's bedroom provided more room to manoeuvre than the corridor. Slowly backing up towards it, Harry kept blocking the spells her opponent shot at her. When she was through the door she ducked sideways, using the short reprieve to cast a Caterwauling Charm on the room. It would produce an ongoing noise loud enough to be heard down on the street. She could have used a Wailing Charm again but she still wasn't sure how to power it correctly so it would be heard by many without rapturing her eardrums again. Unfortunately the Caterwauling Charm reacted only to intruders entering the guarded area after it had been cast. So to set it off she needed to bait her opponent into entering the bedroom. Of course once they got here, she'd be stuck in this room with a probably very dangerous older wizard between her and the door. A wizard who'd be extremely angry and maybe even desperate to get away once the alarm went off. Harry hoped that it would, in fact, go off. While she knew the spell in theory, having read up on it at the beginning of summer, she'd never actually used a Caterwauling Charm – it would bring the kind of attention Leo and she tried to avoid when playing their little game. Well, now she wanted all the attention she could get. Harry settled into a fighting stance, shifted until corridor and intruder were back in her line of sight, and attacked in earnest.

As they traded spells back and forth, Harry was careful to back up slowly so as to lure her opponent into the room without being too obvious about it. She had no difficulty holding her own, blocking curses and jinxes with ease before setting off her own, but she was also unable to gain an advantage. She was reminded of the few times in duelling club last year when she'd had a really challenging partner. Only this time, there was more at stake. She was painfully aware of the repercussions of losing, her mind flitting back to a night in a dark alley two years past, a blue vest and bloody cobblestones. At the same time she was reluctant to do anything too drastic as she didn't want to destroy more of Leo's possessions than were already falling prey to stray curses and rebounding spells.

Cancelling yet another full-body-bind, Harry stepped back once again and felt her legs touch the frame of Leo's bed. She was just thinking that she'd have to change tactics, as this position hindered her movability, when her opponent advanced and crossed the threshold of the room.

Even though she had been prepared for it, the sheer intensity of the yowling noise, which flooded the room as the Caterwauling Charm was set off, made Harry jump. Still, she fared much better than the intruder, who immediately doubled over in pain, clutching his head with pale hands, probably trying to close off his ears against the noise. Even over the racket Harry could hear a ferocious snarl emanate from her opponent and for the first time she considered the possibility that her attacker wasn't human. Oh he had to be partly human at least, to legally carry a wand, but being part creature and having more sensitive hearing would certainly explain this unexpected reaction.

Lost in those thought, Harry nearly missed the warning signs and only just managed to get out of the way when the possible-part-creature bodily lunged at her. She stumbled to the side, keeping her footing only thanks to endless hours of footwork exercises, and whirled around to point her wand at the attacker, who'd landed on Leo's bed on all fours and now turned to face her, hissing and spitting, in a tangle of sheets. Harry froze. The intruders head-scarf had come undone and now hung loosely around her head. Yes, she was female and Harry briefly wondered how she could have missed it, considering the quality of voice and thin frame. The tall young woman had long white blond hair that was braided back from her girlishly soft featured face but then hung untamed down her back, more and more strands escaping from the scarf. Her dark eyes seemed to flash red as she snarled again, revealing a row of pointed teeth that were definitely not human. This time when she lunged Harry was ready and quickly raised a new Fortis shield. Now that the Caterwauling Charm had been triggered, it would continue the racket until it was deactivated or the magic she had put into it ran out, which would probably take a while. Whether or not help was on the way wouldn't matter if she didn't live to see it arrive though. The noise was definitely making her opponent more aggressive. Hoping to diffuse the situation somewhat by putting some distance between the fight and what sounded like a whole nuisance of cats singing the Hogwarts Hymn, Harry backed up down the corridor again, heading for the living room.

Her opponent, who Harry thought might be part vampire, stalked her, rapidly firing off spells. Harry dodged them, trying not to trip over Leo's furniture as she moved from the corridor to the living room. She winced as chairs and picture frames were reduced to splinters by the curses missing her. The tea service was hit, sending shards of porcelain in every direction. Then the book shelve went up in a cloud of shredded paper, loose pages rained down all over the room, some of them catching fire. If this didn't end soon there would be nothing left of Leo's possessions. She didn't have time to dwell on this dour thought at the moment though. Diving out of the way of a curse she hadn't been fast enough to block, she went sprawling behind the sofa while the spot she had been standing on moments ago was reduced to a splintery crater. She let out a soft grown as she picked herself off the floor. She had fallen onto something in her pocket. Her hand moved to it unconsciously and for a moment she stared blankly at the small metal ball about half the size of a bludger.

Then realization dawned. She and her dad had been tinkering on their invention again last night. After weeks of developing, this was the first viable prototype they had of the device. How could she have forgotten she had it on her? After all it was made for situations just like this though Harry had never expected to first test it under so serious circumstances. In fact, the only reason the prototype was with her and not at the DMLE was that she had been planning on using in on Archie when he came home from his internship in America in two days – though she'd told her dad she'd be using it on Sirius. Still thinking it had been Archie who'd spent the better part of a week trapped in a circle of her potion, her dad wouldn't want to risk evoking any flashbacks with such a prank. But she'd have to think of another welcome-home-prank for Archie. She needed the device now.

As the dust from the explosion settled Harry squeezed the ball to activate it and lobbed it toward her opponent with her left hand while also shooting a stunner at her for distraction. The woman deflected the stunner and chuckled darkly when the little ball fell short and started to roll away. Harry dodged her counter jinx and winced when she heard something else break in the bookshelf behind her. Frankly she hadn't thought there was anything left. Conscious of how vital it was that her target stay put in position, Harry released three Impedimenta jinxes in quick succession and while one was deflected and another dodged, the third got close enough to brush the intruder's shoulder and keep her frozen for a few seconds. It was enough. Before she could move again the little ball had completed the circle it had surreptitiously rolled around her, all the while releasing shield potion onto the floor. The Fortis Shield snapped in place, forming a barrier that could only be broken with the counter potion.

Harry doubled over, trying to catch her breath. She took a moment to concentrate and cancel the Caterwauling Charm that was still blaring in the bedroom. It left behind a ringing silence. She thought she heard a muttered "Thank Lilith!" from her prisoner.

She was still trying to calm her breathing when the door suddenly burst open. There stood Leo, flanked by Marek and Krait. All three men had their wands raised and surveyed the scene before them with puzzled incredulity. Harry gave a sardonic smile.

"Hey guys, nice of you to show up. Better late than never. Turns out I'm not the only one breaking into your apartment, Leo. Or were you teaching her to break and enter, too? In which case I apologise for the mess. I was really only trying to get my book back but I guess it probably didn't survive." She glanced sadly at the remains of the bookshelf. With so much damage done by curses and jinxes, she wasn't sure if its contents could be repaired.

Leo didn't answer. When Harry looked back at him he looked utterly shell-shocked. She couldn't really blame him, given the state of his apartment. She wondered how she'd react if she came back to her potions lab and it looked like a dozen nifflers had gone on a rampage there. His eyes kept flicking from Harry to the intruder, to his living room and back to Harry. Beside him Marek and Krait were having trouble keeping a straight face. Surprisingly it was the intruder who first broke the silence.

"You know him?" She asked Leo. Her voice sounded indignant as her chin indicated Harry.

This was too much for Marek, who broke down in giggles.

"Uhm." Leo was having trouble finding his voice. He elbowed Marek to shut him up before he tried again, rubbing his neck and looking a little sheepish.

"Natalia, meet Harry. Harry, Natalia. She's visiting from Bulgaria – she's the Queen of the Bulgarian Rogue actually. She's staying with me for a few days. We'll be going to see the World Cup together, to show international unity. Guess I should have mentioned that…"

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A/N: This chapter has given me a lot of trouble. It was actually the first Harry/Rigel oneshot I started - back in December 2015 when AA ch.9 came out. But I kept getting stuck and Violet kept updating and giving us new information, contradicting things I had written... So now that the Futile Facade came out today, I thought I'd better hurry up and finish this before it becomes totally obsolete. Hope it'll tide you over till FF2 comes out ;-)


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